Protesters leave St Paul's

Four women from the Occupy movement, who chained themselves to the pulpit in London's St Paul's Cathedral during evensong, cut themselves free at around 10pm after City of London Police entered the cathedral.

Advertisement

The Very Reverend Dr David Ison, Dean of St Paul's, said he and a member of Occupy Faith, the group's religious wing, were leading a prayer when the women came up and started shouting.

It will be a long cold night if they want to stay there. I don't know what they want to do.

I'm just sorry they have decided to do this, which makes it hard for members of Occupy Faith, who have been working together with us on something which is respectful.

We also disagree with the way in which some protesters are continuing to pursue the agenda of conflict with St Paul's, rather than consulting with us about how together we might better achieve the reforms which many people including Occupy are looking for.

Police are allowing female protesters to remain in St Paul's and are no longer present within the cathedral, a spokesman for City of London police said.

Staff at the cathedral told police they were happy for the activists to remain and so officers left the building but maintained a presence outside to police the protest there, the spokesman said.

Protesters opened a large banner on the cathedral steps with the slogan "throw the money-changers out of the temple". The action came as the anti-greed group marks the anniversary of its now dismantled protest camp outside the cathedral.